Up and Gone
by rachelxxray
Summary: AU/KLAINE: Blaine is struggling. After a one night stand with Kurt that was suppose to mean nothing Blaine sets off for a new job that sends him around the world for months at a time to try and get him out of his head. The only problem is that he can't.


"What about him?" Blaine asked, taking another sip of his rye and coke and gesturing to a blonde guy, about their age, pouring over what seemed to be a physics text book.

"No way," Rachel answered quickly, giving him no more than a millisecond of her time, "You are terrible at this; you're picking out all the guys that are _your _type. As my best friend I thought you knew me better than this."

"Oh c'mon!" Blaine replied, taking another look at the boy, "He's cute, it would be worth saying hi!"

"If you think so then you go talk to him." The brunette girl shot back.

"Because my dear Rachel, that would require me telling him I'm gay and you know I don't do that." Blaine said in a slight baby voice, "I will just admire him from afar."

"I'm still saying you should let me set you up with my friend Kurt," Rachel piped in and quickly continued when Blaine could cut her off, "Just hear me out! He's cute, funny, goes to NYADA with me and I've known him since high school. He's a great guy Blaine, you two would get along so well."

Blaine sighed, "I know Rach, you've only told me about him a thousand times. I'm just not ready okay? Agreeing to go on a date with a guy would mean that I'm ready to come out to my parents, and we both know that's not happening... ever. So drop it okay?"

She could hear the aggravation creeping into his voice but this was Blaine, her best friend, she knew just how far she could push him on the subject before he completely snapped and with one quick side glance she saw the way his hand tightened on the glass. This was that point. The subject of coming out to his family was always a short one and it always ended in an awkward silence between them.

"So," Blaine finally said, breaking the silence and spinning around in his bar stool to face the busy pub. "What about him?" he suggested casually, nodding his head towards a tall, fairly well built, brunette guy who had just walked in.

Spinning quickly around Rachel immediately made eye contact with the boy Blaine had been referring to. Blaine had been right to spot him out, he was cute in that boy next door kind of way, sporting a blue button down dress shirt, well worn jeans and the most charming smile she had ever seen.

"Oh good one Anderson" Rachel said quietly enough so only her best friend could hear. After running her hands over her hair once through she got up off her seat and quickly approached the boy before her confidence disappeared on her.

"Hi," she said once she was close enough "My name's Rachel."

"Finn," the boy said back with a smile, "I'm surprised you came up to me, isn't your boyfriend going to get jealous of you talking to me?" He asked gesturing his head in Blaine's direction.

Rachel turned to see where he was looking and couldn't help but laugh when she realized he was referring to Blaine "Oh? No, that's just my friend Blaine. Trust me, no chance of a relationship there." She reassured tossing one last giddy smile to Blaine before turning all her attention to Finn.

Looking at his watch Blaine made note of the time, 10:30 and he had to be at work for 7:00 the next morning. After two years with the same company he had gotten used to the early mornings but that didn't mean that the idea of getting out of bed before noon was any easier for him to handle than any other twenty-one year old guy.

Looking over at Rachel he could tell that she was flirting and flirting hard at that. He smiled as he watched her gently touch his arm and laugh. He was happy for her; he knew how much Rachel wanted a guy in her life, even if she didn't let the extent of it known to him. After all the hard work she'd put in to get herself where she was now, she deserved a good guy that she could share those achievements with.

Taking the last swig of his drink he put the money he owed on the bar and made his way to the door.

"Blaine," Rachel's voice called from behind him just before he reached the front door, "Wait and I'll go with you."

"Rach, no it's okay, stay and talk to that guy, it looked like you were having a good time. I'm just going to go home and crash anyways." Blaine shrugged.

"No it's fine," Rachel smiled putting her coat on "I got his number, we're going to have coffee tomorrow. Now let's go." Looping her arm through his she looked at her best friend and they both smiled at each other opening the door of the bar up to the cool spring night air.

At 11:10 Blaine stumbled into his apartment, _'Damn door,'_ he thought to himself as he shoved the door with its' sticky hinges closed and twisted the dead bolt in place. He tossed his keys onto the kitchen counter and guided himself skilfully through the dark apartment until he came to his bedroom and flicked on the overhead light.

The room was relatively small but Blaine didn't mind. There was a queen size bed in the middle, his dresser to the right with a framed picture of him and Rachel sitting on top of it, a pile of clothes on the ground nearby and a stack of books on top that he had been meaning to read for months. Against the wall above his bed sat a world map that he frequently admired. Him and Rachel would often spend hours pointing to places they wished to travel and would concoct the wild and crazy adventures they would have there. And lastly, to the left of his bed was Blaine's favourite part of the room, the balcony and full window. Even after living in the city for two years Blaine still had yet to grow tired or annoyed of all the bright lights of New York City. Maybe it had something to do with growing up in Westerville, Ohio where the most exciting light show was the annual fifteen minute fourth of July fireworks but somehow it just made sense that this is where he was suppose to be.

It was 11:15 he checked as he quickly opened his laptop, changed into sweatpants and an old Dalton Academy P.E shirt and sat cross legged in the middle of his bed.

**Hi Hunny,**

The first email from his mother read,

**We're missing you like crazy here and can't wait till you have a weekend off to come visit us****. ****I ran into your old friend Wesley from Dalton yesterday at the supermarket. He wanted to say Hello and told me that he has recently gotten engaged to that lovely Angela girl he's been seeing! Isn't that exciting darling? Oh I can't wait until I can feel this excited for you, any potential lady friends I should know about? How is Rachel doing this term with school? Please tell her we say Hello. Give us a call soon Blaine, we'd love to hear from you.**

**Love, Mom**

It took Blaine a moment before he could move onto the next email. _'Typical' _he thought as he tried to disregard his Mother's comments. But even as he tried he could feel all the anxiety building up in the pit of his stomach. He ran his hands across his face as if to wipe the thoughts of her words out of his mind but it was no use. 'Any potential lady friends I should know about?' the words were burning in his brain and making him sick to his stomach.

'_No Mom, I like boys.' _he'd recited the words over and over in his head, typed them out even more times in an email and had been on the extreme edge of hitting send. It was usually at those moments that he would slam his laptop closed and go for a long run just to get away from his thoughts for just a few minutes. Or entertain a stiff glass of scotch at the bar down the street; anything to take the edge off.

The whole point of coming to New York was for him to figure himself out. To get a boyfriend and establish himself, then he'd at least have someone to help and comfort him through the struggle of coming out to his parents.

Blaine shook his head; it had seemed like such a good idea when he was eighteen and moving to New York City with Rachel. This move was going to be a chance to start over and be himself without the judgmental gaze of his family questioning his every move. But instead he'd slid back into his old habits; idly flirting with straight guys his age at work, constantly avoiding Rachel's offers to meet her gay guy friends at school and pretending he was straight when he knew in his heart he wasn't.

'_Just one more escape' _he thought to himself as he exited out of the email and scanned the rest of his inbox _'Please...' _

And then he saw it, an email from his boss.

**Hello Blaine, **

**Come stop by my office tomorrow around 10:30. I just had a meeting with MC Manufacturing and they proposed an interesting new job opportunity I'd like to discuss with you. **

**Regards,**

**Charles Blake**

Stunned, Blaine read over the email one more time before closing his laptop. Could this be the answer he'd been looking for?


End file.
